LONDON: The Transgalactic Interwoman Poetic Expressway

Saturday, November 8th, 2008, 7.30pm, £5/£4
The Poetry Cafe
22 Betterton Street,
Covent Garden,
London

THE TRANSGALACTIC INTERWOMAN POETIC EXPRESSWAY, brought to you by La Langoustine Est Morte

Hosts: Anthony Joseph and Sascha Aurora Akhtar.
Representation from all distant and not-so-distant planets:

Jamika Ajalon (U.S.A by way of London by way of France)
Olumide Poopola (Nigeria/Germany)
Valeria Melchioretto (Switzerland)
Shanta Acharya (India)
Frances Kruk (Canada)
Ziba Kirbassi (Persia)
Sophie Robinson (the most exotic of them all – Old Blighty!))

Frances Kruk lives in London in the presence of cats, moss, glue, scissors, oil pastels, and dark chocolate, all of which make for an unspeakable atrocity. She does not write real poetry.

The Nigerian German writer and performer Olumide Popoola has performed her poetry internationally, collaborating with many different artists and musicians. Currently studying for a MA in (creative) writing, she won the May Ayim Award for Poetry in Germany 2004 and has seen her work published in anthologies, journals and newspapers as well as featured on radio and documentaries.

Valeria Melchioretto is a London-based artist and award-winning writer. Her poems have appeared in many prestigious magazines and anthologies. The End of Limbo is her first full collection, for which she received a bursary from the Arts Council. It was published by Salt in 2007. In 2008 she became a Hawthonden Fellow.

Ziba Kirbassi is a rara avis. Seen only sometimes for short periods of time if you are lucky.
Her work is visceral, hallucinatory at times and from the passions and conflicts of being
born into a country where violence has caused her untellable strife. Her work will be read in Persian and translated by Stepehen Watts.

Shanta Acharya was born and educated in Orissa, India. In 1979 she won a scholarship
to Oxford, and completed her doctoral thesis in 1983. Between 1983-85 she was a Visiting Scholar, as well as a Teaching-cum-Research Assistant at Harvard University. She is currently Executive Director, Initiative on Foundation and Endowment Asset Management at London Business School. Her four books of poetry are Shringara (Shoestring Press, UK; 2006), Looking In, Looking Out (Headland Publications, UK; 2005), Numbering Our Days' Illusions (Rockingham Press, UK; 1995) and Not This, Not That (Rupa & Co, India; 1994). For more information, visit her website: www.shantaacharya.com

Sophie Robinson was born in 1985, and lives and works in London. She has an MA in Poetic Practice from Royal Holloway, and is currently working on a practice-based PhD at Royal Holloway. Her first chapbook, Killin' Kittenish!, was published by yt communications in 2006.
Since 2005 she has performed at numerous events in the UK and the US. Her critical and creative work has been featured in Dusie, How2 and Pilot, and her book is forthcoming from Les Figues press in Los Angeles in November 2008.

Jamika Ajalon is a charismatic American poetess, film director and long time Zenzile collaborator based in London. Anyone who has followed her work with Zenzile since the late nineties, will already be familiar with her phenomenal energy and sensual delivery, which has seen her dubbed "the female Tricky" and the "underground Grace Jones" by some reviewers. Born in St Louis Missouri, Jamika has lived in London for ten years.